Phonological Theories

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Phonological Theories
Session 6, SS2006

• Autosegmental / Metrical Phonology

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Non-linear stress allocation

• Metrical phonology was an approach to word,
  phrase and sentence-stress definition which (a)
  defined stress as a syllabic property, not a
  vowel-inherent feature, and allowed a more
  flexible treatment of stress patterns in i)
  different languages, ii) different
  phrase-prosodic contexts.

The prominence relations between syllables are
defined by a (binary)branching tree, where the
two branches from a node are labelledas dominant
(S strong) and recessive (W weak) in their
relationto each other.
Four (quasi-independent) choices (are assumed
to) determine the stress patterns that (appear
to) exist in natural languages Right-dominant-fo
ot vs. left-dominant-foot languages Bounded
vs. unbounded stress Left-to-right vs.
right-to-left word-stress assignment Quantity-sen
sitive vs. quantity-insensitive languages
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Right-dominant vs. left-dominant

• Languages differ in the tendency for the feet
  to have the strong syllable on the right or the
  left
• Fr. sympho'nie fantas'tique Engl. 'Buckingham
  'Palace

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Bounded vs. unbounded stress (1)

• Bounded (vs. unbounded) is a concept that
  applies to the number of subordinate units that
  can be dominated by a higher node

In metrical phonology it applies usually to the
number of syllables that can be dominated by a
Foot node (bounded 2 one strong, one weak
syllable to the left or the right unbounded no
limit).
This implies that bounded-stress languages have
binary feet.
It also implies that bounded-stress languages
have the word stressclose to the (left or right)
word-boundary
However, it is sometimes applied to the stress
pattern within a word, i.e., that a word has ONE
stress (either at the left or right
boundary), and can have mored than one unstressed
syllables.
This is NOT always understood as a non-binary
tree some assume binary branching, but the tree
is left- or right-dominated
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Stress assignment (left/right)

• Independent of the left or right dominance in
  the foot, word stress can be assigned (in bound
  languages) from the left or right edge of the
  word.

The consequences of this would be noticeable in
words with anodd number of syllables with the
same foot dominance..
(. or with a different dominance and the same
assignment direction)
Which dominance condition in the foot, and
which stress assignmentdirection can we deduce
for English and Italian from the two words?
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Bounded vs. unbounded stress

• In bounded languages the location of the main
  stress is determined by the combination of Foot
  Headedness and the direction of stress assignment
  (from left or right).

In the languages of the world, the default
position appears to be one syllable away from
the left (post-initial stress) or right boundary
(penultimate stress)
This would appear to suggest that languages with
left-headed feetfavour assignment from the end
of a word, and languages with right-headed feet
favour assignment from the beginning of a word
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Quantity sensitive languages

• Languages that are quantity sensitive assign
  the stress to a heavysyllable (if present)

English (and German) are considered
quantity-sensitive languages French is
considered to be quantity-insensitive.
This requires a stressed syllable to be a heavy
syllable either CVV or CVC(C)
Draw metrical trees, compare and comment on the
syllable structure German philosophisch vs.
Philosophie
English solid ?s?lId vs. solidify
s??lIdIfaI
French contrat ko??t?a vs. contractuel
ko?t?ak?t?El
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Metrical Structure

• Liberman Prince (1977) proposed a tree
  structure for representing word (and phrasal, see
  later) stress patterns.

? F
s w
En - glish
How could we represent Heidelberg, Statthalter,
in terms of theabove choice between one- and
two-foot phonological words?
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Extrametricality
Sometimes the rules do not lead to the stress
pattern that the words have in reality (what a
surprise!)
It was found that by making the final consonant
or final syllable of some words transparent to
the rules, the correct result is arrived at.
Whether a unit is extrametrical is considered
part of the lexicon
a) America and b) Mississippi may be considered
to differ only in the fact that a) has an
extrametrical last syllable, b) not.
What about the following words?Teppich,
Kontakt, Stapel, Cabrio, Kohlrabi, Kalender,
Elephant, Krokodil, Albatross, Lexikon
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Metrical (Tree-) Structure

• The tree structure hierarchy is assumed to
  follow the principle of the Strict Layer
  Hypothesis

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Metrical (Grid-)Structure

• One way of seeing the grid structure is the sum
  of the strong and weak nodes along the branches
  to the end-leaf.

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Selkirks stress rules

• Selkirk (1984) proposed two sets of rules

1. Text-to-grid alignment rules (TGA)
2. Grid euphony rules (GE)
Text-to-grid alignment rules- word-level
rules
a) each syllable receives a demibeatb) heavy or
root-initial syllables receive a beat (Basic Beat
Level)c) the rightmost 2-beat syllable receives
a beat (Main Stress Rule)
- higher-level rules
a) the leftmost constituent of a compound (i.e. 2
or more word units) receives a beat (Compound
Stress Rule) b) the rightmost constituent with
lexical stress receives a beat (Nuclear
Stress Rule)c) Pitch Accent Prominence Rule
(pitch accent syllables receive an additional
beat to raise their prominence)
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Uhmanns stress rules
Susanne Uhmann (1991, p. 176ff) proposes very
similar rules for German) x Ebene 4
(Nuklearakzent) x x Ebene 3
(Akzenttonebene) x x x Ebene 2
(Wortakzentebene) x x x x x Ebene 1
(alle S außer schwa) x x x x x x
Ebene 0 (Silbenebene) O t t o t e
le fo niert
Try them out on the following wordsa)
interessant b) Interesse c) Lavendel
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Selkirks stress rules 2
Grid euphony rules These adjust the output
of the grid alignment rules to achieve an ideal
grid
The principle of the ideal grid is The
Principle of Rhythmic Alternation
- every strong position should be followed by a
weak position
- no weak position should be preceded by more
than one weak position.
Rules of Beat Addition, (filling rhythmic
gaps) Beat Movement and Beat Deletion
(both removing stress clashes) can beapplied.
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The autosegmental approach in general
Metrical phonology is a part of a more general
approach to language description which claims
that different aspects (or levels) of language
are structured in their own way but are
associated with (all) the otherlevels. The
approach is called autosegmental its own
segmentation
The Text-to-Grid rules are the way in which the
rhythmic structureis related to the syllabic,
lexical, morphological and syntactic structure.
The origin of the approach was the independent
description of the tonal structure of languages
(African tone languages at first), and itwas
then developed to cover all aspects of the sound
structure,including the association of syllabic
structure to sound segments.
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Autosegmental description of tone
Tones are associated with syllables, where one
tone can be associated with several syllables or
several tones can be associated with one
syllable
E.g., from Mende (Sierra Leone) was" house"
waistline" (i) ko pe-le ha-wa-ma
H H H   owl" dog" junction" (ii)
mbu ngi-la fe-la-ma H L H L
H L companion" woman
monkey-nut" (iii) mba nja-ha
ni-ki-li   L H L L H L L H
L
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Autosegmental description of intonation
The same sort of association with syllables can
be assumed for intonation languages, where a
particular tonal accent can be associated with
utterances of one or more syllables (and words)
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Boundary marking
Intonation phrases (IPs) are defined not only by
the tonal contour they have, but also by their
separation from other IPs.
The boundary markers are systematized as Break
Indices which are accompanied either by pauses
(plus lengthening of preceding segmental
material) and/or by tonal features accompanying
the final segmental material. These are called
boundary tones and can be high (H) or low (L).
Komm doch her! Gib mir doch die Butter H
H L H H L
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Complex Intonational Phrases
IPs have long been observed to have a sort of
subordinatestructure two or more minor phrases
together form a main IP
The term intermediate phrase (ip) has been coined
to express this sort of substructuring
The logical formal implication of this
substructure is that every IPmust contain at
least one ip. An IP-boundary is therefore always
accompanied by an ip-boundary (see L L above).
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Tonal accent categories
A source of ongoing discussion is how many (and
which) distinctive tonal accents characterize a
languages intonation system.
One issue is that t he boundary tones contribute
to the overall tonal contour of an
utterance.Therefore it can be debated whether a
nuclear ( IP-final) accent is complex (i.e.
falling H-L, or rising L-H) or whether the
move-ment comes from its combination with the
boundary tone.
vs, Toms elder brother was always
arguing with him H LH
H HL L L
The present majority opinion appears to favour a
combination viewfor the falling tone but a
separatist view for the rising tones
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Tonal accent categories 2
One of the big advantages of the autosegmental
approach is thepossibility of looking at the
tonal transition from the syllable preceding the
nucleus.
This was impossible in the traditional (British
School) division ofan intonational phrase into
(prehead), (head), nucleus and (tail). The
nucleus began with the onset of the nuclear
syllable, and theprehead or head were described
as separate entities.
There are cases, though, where the height of a
preceding (unstressed,therefore
non-tone-bearing) syllable is part of the tonal
accent
E.g., Toms elder brother was always trying
to argue with him H LH
L H HL L L
This illustrates the importance of using the star
to indicate whichtonal element is primarily
associated with the accented syllable.
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Tonal accent categories 3
The basic inventory of distinctive tonal
phenomena thus comprises 5 tonal accents H,
L, HL, LH, LH 2 ip phrase-boundary
tones L and H 2 IP-final boundary tones L
and H 2 IP-initial boundary tones L and H
(default L is never marked)
These categories are supplemented by
modifications of the H tone when a sequence of
tonal accents occur in an IP, there is a
natural declination of tone height. If the
downward shift from one tonal accent to the next
is greater than the natural declination it is
marked by a downstep (!H)
E.g., Toms elder brother always tries to
argue with him H L H H
!H L L
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Phrase accents
Arguments for H LL instead of HL LL to
represent the falling nuclear accent (in German
as well as in English and a number of other
European languages) have led to a discussion
of the status of the L (and H), i.e. of the
phrase accents.
Evidence for HL could be that we find a fall
from H at a moreor less fixed interval from the
peak of the H tone, independent of the structure
of the material following. Some people claim that
they have found this sort of evidence.
Evidence for H LL could be that we find a fall
from H that varies as a function of the
following material. Many people claim that they
have found this sort of evidence.
In addition, some have found that the L is
reached on a post-nuclear(non-tonally) accented
syllable, if there is one.
E.g., Toms elder brother always tries to argue
with his little sister. H LH
H H L
L